The District 8 supervisor race is done and dusted, with political organizer and healthcare executive Gary McCoy taking a commanding win of 64 percent of votes versus 36 percent for runner-up Darshini Patel.
One element of the results has left candidate Michael Nguyen — a lawyer, elected member of the local Democrat Party, and a drag queen who performs as Juicy Liu — perturbed: how many people in the district voted for Manny Yekutiel.
After the most recent ballot count on Thursday, Yekutiel leads Nguyen by 163 votes: 3,671 to Nguyen’s 3,508.
“Honestly, I feel disgusted and a little terrified that Manny's supporters told me, to my face and to my canvassers at the doors and on the streets of D8, that they're still supporting Manny even after the multiple credible sexual assault allegations,” Nguyen told Gazetteer SF.
In June, political organizer Brad Chapin went public with claims that Yekutiel had assaulted him in 2020. Despite the credibility of Chapin’s allegation, many of Yekutiel’s supporters, including the local Democratic Party, incumbent District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and Mayor Daniel Lurie firmly backed Yekutiel. It was only after two additional people came forward and spoke to the San Francisco Standard about more alleged sexual assaults that Yekutiel’s campaign fell apart. He dropped out of the race on Oct. 1.
Although Yekutiel announced the suspension of his campaign, his name remained on the ballot on Election Day. Yekutiel did not state any intention to serve as supervisor even if he won, which means the votes cast for him can be seen as a symbolic show of support.
Yekutiel did not respond to multiple requests for comment by Gazetteer SF.
Nguyen said that one of the most common justifications from Yekutiel supporters he heard on the campaign trail was that they believed the queer community has a looser culture of consent, and that Yekutiel’s alleged assaults were part of that culture. That rhetoric recalled comments from Mandelman, Nguyen said; in the Oct. 1 story by the Standard, Supervisor Myrna Melgar claimed that Mandelman had told her that “among the gays,” sexual assault is “not a thing.”
“I don’t think I said that. Sexual assault is a thing. I think sexual assault occurs differently [in the gay community] and there’s a different threshold,” Mandelman explained to the Standard at the time.
Nguyen said that Mandelman’s comment was “very disturbing” because it implied that a certain level of sexual assault is acceptable within queer spaces. “He’s given straight people license to normalize sexual assault in the gay community — ‘It’s just what they do over there,’” Nguyen said, echoing things he heard from D8 constituents.
In an interview, Mandelman told Gazetteer that he saw Chapin at City Hall “several weeks ago” and had a brief conversation in which he apologized to Chapin for backing Yekutiel. “I regret that it required more people having to come forward with their stories for me to get clear on what was going on,” Mandelman said.
Mandelman also stated he believes “sexual assault is sexual assault,” and that his Oct. 1 quote in the Standard about consent culture and a “different threshold” did not accurately reflect his beliefs. “I don't believe that, and I would not try to defend that statement,” Mandelman said.
Despite losing in the D8 race, Nguyen remains optimistic about spreading his agenda for a “rhinestone revolution” on the left to challenge Lurie and centrist political groups in the city while also presenting progressive solutions to improve San Francisco. Nguyen portrayed himself as the most left of the D8 candidates, prioritizing the building of city-owned social housing, a full rejection of Flock camera use, and opposition to Lurie’s well-funded efforts to consolidate mayoral decision-making power.
He criticized the “unprecedented amount of money in our politics,” especially from wealthy funders who have an outsized impact on candidate fundraising. Nguyen admitted that fundraising was a challenge for his campaign, but said he is thrilled about his field campaign’s efforts on his behalf.
“We got people involved in politics who had not gotten involved or inspired [in the past]. We had lots of young people, Black and brown queer folks, non-binary folks leading a big operation in the field,” Nguyen said. “It’s a very high-turnout district, and we were clear on our messaging, and I’m very proud of that.”
